Why Old School Travel Aids Still Rock

My wife and I had not planned an ambitious vacation for several years. Then we got a wedding invitation from Seattle and thought, why not do a tour of the Pacific Northwest? I figured planning the trip would be as easy as typing “Pacific Northwest” into my browser and that this could be a vacation concocted solely with digital assistance. No more travel books, no more paper printouts of driving directions. My laptop and my iPhone would lead us.

That’s not exactly how it turned out.

Digital Travel Planning: Too Many Opinions

I laid out a sweeping plan. We’d go to the Olympic National Park and see waves crash into cliffs. We’d head up to Vancouver for an urban adventure. And we’d stop at the fabled San Juan Islands for a relaxing coda.

But making decisions about where to go based on the internet is not easy. Everybody has an opinion: “This lodge is great.” “No, it has bedbugs.” “Eat here.” “Don’t eat here.”

So I went to my neighborhood bookstore, bought a copy of a Lonely Planet guide to the Pacific Northwest and was immediately calmed. The author’s voice was knowledgeable and there was helpful advice on what to do and where to stay.

And travel books aren’t just for older people.  I shared my story with a Millennial couple we know. The woman rolled her eyes at my methods, but her husband agreed: The Internet overwhelmed him, so he bought a guidebook for their recent trip.

The TripTik Saved Our Vacation

There’s no need for an AAA TripTik breaking your trip down into mile-by-mile segments anymore, right? Well, I decided it couldn’t hurt, so I requested one. When the TripTik arrived, I discovered I had planned the vacation from hell.

Somehow, I thought the driving distance between each point was a maximum of three hours because the Internet never says, “You know, you’ve got an eight-hour drive ahead of you.” But the TripTik gives you that minute-by-minute, block-by-block itinerary, which must be why 17 million people a year either request one or create one via the AAA app.

So I did a last-minute revamp of our itinerary. Bye-bye, Olympic Peninsula.

How to Pick a Destination

We wanted one more stop to replace the lost peninsula. I tried an old school method: I looked at a map for a place that sounded cool. Lummi Island … love the name! Lonely Planet said it was very nice. So I went back to technology.

I Googled hotels, found one and played hotel room roulette on the Internet — one day there was a room, the next day it was gone, the next it was back. I grabbed it. Turns out, tiny, mellow Lummi Island was one of our favorite stops. Click here to continue reading.